Champollion, Lucas. 2014. "Distributivity, collectivity, and cumulativity" (handbook article, to appear in Wiley's Companion to Semantics)


[Full paper on lingbuzz]


Abstract:  This handbook article provides an overview of the major empirical phenomena discussed in connection with the theoretical concepts of distributivity, collectivity, and cumulativity. Topics include: an operational definition of distributivity; the difference between lexical and phrasal distributivity; atomic vs. nonatomic distributivity; collectivity and thematic entailments; two classes of collective predicates ("be numerous" vs. "gather"); how to distinguish between cumulative and collective readings; interactions of distributivity and collectivity; and a list of other relevant review papers and handbook articles.

Keywords:  distributivity, collectivity, cumulativity, plurality

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